LUCKNOW: Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, which is facing an existential crisis on home turf Uttar Pradesh, received a fresh challenge on Thursday when another
Dalit
outfit, Bhim Army, announced formation of a political party.
Bhim Army
convener
Chandrashekhar Azad
had till recently held out an olive branch to
Mayawati, while reiterating he won’t enter electoral politics.
His aides said the trigger for the key decision was absence of two BSP MPs from Rajya Sabha on Wednesday when voting took place on the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill. The outfit has decided to take the plunge in the Delhi Assembly elections early next year and then contest panchayat elections in UP, before participating in the mother of all elections in 2022.
On Thursday evening, Azad said: “When the Constitution was being murdered in Parliament, two BSP MPs ran away during voting. They cheated Baba Saheb, Kanshi Ram and the entire Bahujan Samaj. Earlier, Mayawati adopted unconstitutional means to help BJP on reservation and Article
370. By doing this, she not only made Muslims insecure, but also weakened Bahujan politics.” Announcing formation of an alternative political outfit, Azad declared: “Ab daulat wala nahin, kaam karne wala neta banega (Now, someone who works will become a leader, not a rich person).” Bhim Army entered student politics in August this year, contesting from Bihar, Rajasthan and Delhi, winning the vice-president’s post in Delhi’s Ambedkar University. However, the decision to enter full-time politics was taken “in a sudden moment” on Thursday morning. A member of Azad’s team told TOI that once they heard about the two missing BSP MPs during voting on CAB, organisation workers decided it was high time to step into mainstream politics. “The name and symbol will be declared soon. Delhi is likely to be our base,” he said.
Azad shot to fame in 2017 when he was arrested for his role in caste violence in Saharanpur’s Shabbirpur village. He was jailed for more than a year under National Security Act and released in 2018. Despite extending support to Mayawati on several occasions and being snubbed in return, Azad offered to support her during 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Mayawati maintained her distance from Azad, accusing him of being a BJP mole.
However, her party is facing a major crisis in the state. Having won 13 seats in Lok Sabha elections in an alliance with SP, her party failed to register a single win in recent bypolls. BSP’s hold in other states too has been slipping and the party is currently making an effort to retain its Muslim votebank. Bhim Army, which has a significant base in west UP, is only going to add to the party’s challenges. Azad also appealed his supporters to suggest a name for his new political party.